A forewarning: please note that I don't (yet) own the Mare Nostrum expansion, so I am missing the Trade League option. I don't know if that system makes merchant republics trading powerhouses, I do however believe that merchant republics trade should be fully competitive with other major trade nations without the need of the last expansion. So my analysis will disregard entirely the trade league option.
Merchant republics actual trade capabilities have greatly declined in power and efficiency from common sense onwards: their relevant features were never revised to work with development and compete with estates (that were promised a full integration with merchant republics' factions that never come to pass) and feel too disconnected from the current game systems.
They can still be worked into inland trade powerhouses due to the +33% caravan bonus, but their naval trade game is a paper tiger.
In my humble opinion, the arbitrary limit to 20 provinces in states is the final nail in the coffin for merchant republic gameplay because they are now forced to play tall, a playstyle that they are unable to play competitively.
Once upon a time... the guilds faction was actually nice to play tall with that -10% to build costs when buildings were more powerful and had a monarch power costs, trade posts were much better and didn't have to struggle against a penality of at least -25% trade power in territories that nowadays composes most of the merchant republic due to the 20 provinces limit. And the bottom tier autonomy reduction over time of the merchant republics was not too crushing in the trade game.
Nowadays other governments thanks to the burgers estate can develop their provinces when they grab a -10% reduction to development costs and have a boost to trade that can be up to +20% even with average loyality, and granting a province to burgers (a feature that not only won't cost any ADM power compared to trade posts, but can actually be used in conjuction to the demand support interaction to produce a cospicuous gain of DIP power) will raise its local trade power of +50% and reduce its local autonomy to a virtual 0% for navy/production/trade purpose, blessing that province to be instantly competitive in the trade system, while merchant republics in comparison will also struggle with local autonomy for decades due to their awful local automomy decrease.
And of course merchant republics can only have a single trade post for trade zone, nor they can have a trade post in their all-important home trade zone, while every nation with the burgers estate can have the burgers in every major center of trade/estuary, but the capital.
Let's compute everything: most merchant republics after obtaining a new, awesome center of trade will struggle against an heavy penality to production and trade that will start in between -75%/-40% for production and half of that for trade; with a minimum cap of -50% to production and -25% to trade in territories. They will have a +10% global trade when the merchant faction is dominant, but a -10% when the aristocracy is. They could make said center of trade a trade post if they don't have another trade post in the trade zone, for a +10 base trade power, that however will be reduced by the previous penality.
On comparison basically everybody else will set the burghers in that new center of trade for a 110% production and a wooping 150% total local trade power while also mantaining a near permanent +20% trade efficency.
Given that a 1/1/1 center of trade starts from a base 10.6 trade power (and most center of trades will actually start the game with a base trade power of around 14) guess who has an actual production and trade power advantage? And what when you gain a second center of trade/estuary/whatever in the same trade zone?
And to add insult to injury the not-merchant republics will also have a far bigger navy just to grab an ulterior advantage with naval missions.
I don't think I'm an especially good player however I think (hope) I'm at least an average skilled one, and after multiple gameplay with post 1.16 merchant republics I am now strongly convinced that merchant republics' maritime trade options just plain suck in comparison with every other government type.
And when your average player starts to recognize that merchant republics suck at trade, then something is probably not working as intended.
The +33% caravan power is the only really competitive bonus that merchant republics can muster against other nations, and the extra merchant still help; but if you are planning to be a maritime trade powerhouse you will discover that it is a far steeper hill to climb compared to any other nation.
My Proposal
1. If merchant republics are supposed to play tall, they should be equipped with a -% development cost superior to every other nation except free cities, including burger bonus in the comparison.
Half of this bonus should be always avaible while the other half should be part of their faction system.
So, if the DLCs enable development...
-7.5% development cost added to mercant republic government form boni
-7.5% development cost added to the guilds faction boni
If the DLCs do not enable development this should probaby change in something like
-10% build costs added to mercant republic government form boni
To give anyway an extra edge to whatever tall game is possible without development.
Or the 20 provinces in states limit should be lifted from merchant republics when development isn't enabled.
2. Merchant republic trade efficiency should be as powerful as any other government form with a positive burger estate influence. Half of this bonus should be under the merchants faction.
So,
+10% trade efficiency added to merchant republic government form boni
+10% trade efficiency added to the merchants faction boni
3. Merchant republic trade posts should be changed to be equipped with fully equivalent burger estate benefits. They should also contribute again to naval forcelimit to compensate the lowered naval forcelimit due to the only 20 provinces in states restriction. If the only one trade post per trade zone limitation is kept the base trade bonus should be still present, but reduced, to compensate against multiple trade center burger bonuses and at the same time avoid excessive stacking. If multiple trade posts per trade zone are allowed then the trade bonus should be removed entirely. I'll base my proposal on the "only one trade post per trade zone" hypotesis.
So, if dlcs enable trade posts
Trade posts still limited to one trade post per trade zone
Trade posts cost nothing to set up, but you can move them for 50 ADM
Trade posts can be set up in any non-capital province that has at least a territorial core
Trade posts base trade value bonus reduced to +5
Trade posts grant a +1 naval forcelimit
Trade posts negates local autonomy for the purposes of: local sailors modifiers, naval force limit, local production efficiency, local trade power.
Trade posts grant a final +50% local trade power modifier that fully stacks with everything else
No ulterior bonus to production is needed since the Guilds faction grants a national +10% already.
4. Merchant republic caravan bonus should be greatly reduced to avoid excessive stacking in inland trade nodes. This is a bonus that other government forms lacks anyway so merchant republics will always have an edge there; it is also somewhat overpowered at the moment.
Caravan Power bonus from government form reduced to +15%
Merchant republics actual trade capabilities have greatly declined in power and efficiency from common sense onwards: their relevant features were never revised to work with development and compete with estates (that were promised a full integration with merchant republics' factions that never come to pass) and feel too disconnected from the current game systems.
They can still be worked into inland trade powerhouses due to the +33% caravan bonus, but their naval trade game is a paper tiger.
In my humble opinion, the arbitrary limit to 20 provinces in states is the final nail in the coffin for merchant republic gameplay because they are now forced to play tall, a playstyle that they are unable to play competitively.
Once upon a time... the guilds faction was actually nice to play tall with that -10% to build costs when buildings were more powerful and had a monarch power costs, trade posts were much better and didn't have to struggle against a penality of at least -25% trade power in territories that nowadays composes most of the merchant republic due to the 20 provinces limit. And the bottom tier autonomy reduction over time of the merchant republics was not too crushing in the trade game.
Nowadays other governments thanks to the burgers estate can develop their provinces when they grab a -10% reduction to development costs and have a boost to trade that can be up to +20% even with average loyality, and granting a province to burgers (a feature that not only won't cost any ADM power compared to trade posts, but can actually be used in conjuction to the demand support interaction to produce a cospicuous gain of DIP power) will raise its local trade power of +50% and reduce its local autonomy to a virtual 0% for navy/production/trade purpose, blessing that province to be instantly competitive in the trade system, while merchant republics in comparison will also struggle with local autonomy for decades due to their awful local automomy decrease.
And of course merchant republics can only have a single trade post for trade zone, nor they can have a trade post in their all-important home trade zone, while every nation with the burgers estate can have the burgers in every major center of trade/estuary, but the capital.
Let's compute everything: most merchant republics after obtaining a new, awesome center of trade will struggle against an heavy penality to production and trade that will start in between -75%/-40% for production and half of that for trade; with a minimum cap of -50% to production and -25% to trade in territories. They will have a +10% global trade when the merchant faction is dominant, but a -10% when the aristocracy is. They could make said center of trade a trade post if they don't have another trade post in the trade zone, for a +10 base trade power, that however will be reduced by the previous penality.
On comparison basically everybody else will set the burghers in that new center of trade for a 110% production and a wooping 150% total local trade power while also mantaining a near permanent +20% trade efficency.
Given that a 1/1/1 center of trade starts from a base 10.6 trade power (and most center of trades will actually start the game with a base trade power of around 14) guess who has an actual production and trade power advantage? And what when you gain a second center of trade/estuary/whatever in the same trade zone?
And to add insult to injury the not-merchant republics will also have a far bigger navy just to grab an ulterior advantage with naval missions.
I don't think I'm an especially good player however I think (hope) I'm at least an average skilled one, and after multiple gameplay with post 1.16 merchant republics I am now strongly convinced that merchant republics' maritime trade options just plain suck in comparison with every other government type.
And when your average player starts to recognize that merchant republics suck at trade, then something is probably not working as intended.
The +33% caravan power is the only really competitive bonus that merchant republics can muster against other nations, and the extra merchant still help; but if you are planning to be a maritime trade powerhouse you will discover that it is a far steeper hill to climb compared to any other nation.
My Proposal
1. If merchant republics are supposed to play tall, they should be equipped with a -% development cost superior to every other nation except free cities, including burger bonus in the comparison.
Half of this bonus should be always avaible while the other half should be part of their faction system.
So, if the DLCs enable development...
-7.5% development cost added to mercant republic government form boni
-7.5% development cost added to the guilds faction boni
If the DLCs do not enable development this should probaby change in something like
-10% build costs added to mercant republic government form boni
To give anyway an extra edge to whatever tall game is possible without development.
Or the 20 provinces in states limit should be lifted from merchant republics when development isn't enabled.
2. Merchant republic trade efficiency should be as powerful as any other government form with a positive burger estate influence. Half of this bonus should be under the merchants faction.
So,
+10% trade efficiency added to merchant republic government form boni
+10% trade efficiency added to the merchants faction boni
3. Merchant republic trade posts should be changed to be equipped with fully equivalent burger estate benefits. They should also contribute again to naval forcelimit to compensate the lowered naval forcelimit due to the only 20 provinces in states restriction. If the only one trade post per trade zone limitation is kept the base trade bonus should be still present, but reduced, to compensate against multiple trade center burger bonuses and at the same time avoid excessive stacking. If multiple trade posts per trade zone are allowed then the trade bonus should be removed entirely. I'll base my proposal on the "only one trade post per trade zone" hypotesis.
So, if dlcs enable trade posts
Trade posts still limited to one trade post per trade zone
Trade posts cost nothing to set up, but you can move them for 50 ADM
Trade posts can be set up in any non-capital province that has at least a territorial core
Trade posts base trade value bonus reduced to +5
Trade posts grant a +1 naval forcelimit
Trade posts negates local autonomy for the purposes of: local sailors modifiers, naval force limit, local production efficiency, local trade power.
Trade posts grant a final +50% local trade power modifier that fully stacks with everything else
No ulterior bonus to production is needed since the Guilds faction grants a national +10% already.
4. Merchant republic caravan bonus should be greatly reduced to avoid excessive stacking in inland trade nodes. This is a bonus that other government forms lacks anyway so merchant republics will always have an edge there; it is also somewhat overpowered at the moment.
Caravan Power bonus from government form reduced to +15%
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